


Changeling

by colderblue



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: (a tad bit and it's kind of stolen from tolkein), Angst, Crew as a family, Dwarf Culture & Customs, Elf Culture & Customs, F/M, Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Spoilers for Episode: e060-066 The Stolen Century Parts 1-7, Spoilers for Episode: e067-069 Story and Song Parts 1-3, The pairings aren't super essential it's mostly gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:41:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23885425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colderblue/pseuds/colderblue
Summary: Elves take changelings, occasionally. Swapping out humans and elves. Swapping between human and elf.
Relationships: Angus McDonald & Taako, Barry Bluejeans/Lup, Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 184
Collections: Non-horny Biology





	1. Taako & Lup

**Author's Note:**

> Did I spend the weekend before finals writing a TAZ fic? Yeah! (oof.)
> 
> Note- this is fully written, just not fully posted

They’re halfway through Cycle Four when it starts. They’re in a city that’s not too unlike the ones that exist- that used to exist- back home, except there are three suns in the sky instead of two, and the heat from the extra star made the entire planet into an arid, sandy, desert. 

Lucretia sat in a warm patch of sunlight on the window sill of one of the Starblaster’s largest portholes, taking notes on one of the many book’s she’d borrowed from the cities’ library when a certain passage caught her eye, her brow furrowing. She read the passage again, and hummed, interested, jotting down a note onto her notebook, and tearing it out to stick in her pocket so that she remembers to ask at dinner.

Dinner that night was delicious, as it always was. The twins made some sort of stew out of the planet’s native vegetables, and served it over some of the fluffiest rice that Lucretia had ever had. “The differences between this world and ours are really interesting,” she said between bites, raising her voice to speak over the unadulterated chaos that was their table. “Everyone on this planet, they’re so similar to us; in terms of biology, they’re practically the exact same, but it says that the elves here can’t have twins.” 

Magnus laughed loudly. “Imagine if we only had one of these two,” he said, motioning towards Taako and Lup. “I bet the food would only be half as good.” Taako puts on a slightly annoyed facade, playing into the joke.

“Like Hell! It would be better if I could get Lup off my back once in awhile,” he said, skillfully dodging the light smack his sister was aiming at his face, “Hey! Don’t be rude because you can’t handle the truth, Miss-Overcook-all-pasta-forever!” 

“You undercook it!” Said Lup, conjuring a few sparks and blowing them at Taako, who waved them off and bared his teeth at her. “Don’t flash your fangs at me, bitch! No one likes crunchy pasta!”

“I like Lup’s pasta better,” Said Barry, chiming in. “The sauce clings to it better.” Taako shot him a look of disgust.

“The sauce’s ability to cling is about the type of pasta, Barold, the shape. Not about how shitty Lup is at cooking it. I thought you were a scientist?”

“Don’t listen to him, Barry.” Lup grinned at the human. “You’re absolutely correct.” She served herself another scoop of rice, adding lightly, “Anyway Lucretia, that’s the same back home.”

“What?” Lucretia asked, momentarily so caught up in the pasta banter that she forgot what Lup was responding to.

“She means the twin thing. It’s the same way back home. Elves can’t have twins, our bodies can’t handle more than one baby at once,” Taako said.

“Yeah, sure,” Magnus said, joking “You guys just met in classes at the Institute, right?”

“No-”

“Good goof, guys,” said Davenport, “But not too believable.” He stood up, grabbing his plate to take it into the kitchen. “I think that it’s Lucreatia and Barry’s turn to do dishes.”

“Wait,” said Taako, amusement clear on his face, “you think that this is a joke? Cap’n port, I can’t believe that you’d think so low of me.”

“Yeah, if we’re pulling a goof, you wouldn’t know it.” Lup said, leaning over the table to high five her brother.

“Are you a year apart then?” Lucretia asked, intrigued, “I knew a pair of elves during college who were about a year and a half apart but just considered themselves twins.”

“No, no. Listen, me and Lup? We’re true fucking twins,” Taako replied, putting a tone onto the words that screamed importance, and waving his hands in the air as if trying to figure out how to phrase what he was going to say next. “That’s why we’re so identical. Lup is only like, five minutes older than me.”

“Ten minutes.” Lup argued, “I’m ten minutes older than you and you know it.”

“Three.”

“Fine, five.”

“Alright, alright,” cut in Merle, clearly not believing them. “Sure, you and Lup are mystical elf twins, even though elves can’t have twins. We believe you. Let’s clean up.”

“Merle-” Lup tried to argue

“Nah, let it go, Lup,” said Taako, “It’s no biggie.”

“So you admit it’s a goof?” Said Magnus, waving his fork between the two of them, “and that we figured it out in record time.”

“Sure, Maggie.” Taako saId sarcastically, smiling and nodding. “Good job! You know, you should replace Barry as the science officer. We can just leave him behind when The Hunger comes next time.”

“Hey-”

“Just a joke, Barold!”

-

It’s cycle ten when it’s brought up again. The Starblaster is stationed at a port in a city where everyone has wings. They got lucky, and found the light just two weeks in, so they were enjoying what the world had to offer while preparing its inhabitants for The Hunger’s inevitable arrival. Taako was able to transmute a pair of wings for everyone so that they could actually move around a place that was designed for humanoid birds.

Magnus was upset, because the law enforcement of the city is insisting that he can’t fly alone for any reason. “I’ve been alive for twenty eight years,” he grumbled, slumped over his breakfast a few weeks in, the Red Kite-esque wings on his back drooping. “What’s it matter that I reset to eighteen every year? Besides, being eighteen means that I’m an adult. I went on a fucking planar mission!”

“It means that you’re an adult back on Two-Sun,” Barry said gently, “The winged humans here mature at twenty five, and we should respect their laws if we’re going to be here for almost an entire year still.” Taako, who had decided to drink nothing but bottomless mimosas for this cycle, laughed.

“Jeeze, eighteen and twenty five? That’s like, toddler years. I barely remember that,” he said. “I’m so fucking glad that I didn’t stay human. Pass the OJ, Lup.” The side conversations between the rest of the seven halt, and twins took a minute to notice, engrossed in pouring the perfect ratio of vodka and orange juice. Taako looked up when he notices the silence. “What?’

“What do you mean, ‘stay human’,” Lucretia asked, breaking the silence.

“We’re true twins.” Lup said, as if that explains everything, her ears flicking slightly in confusion when it doesn’t seem to. “C’mon guys, we told you this a few cycles ago.”

“The goof? What does that have to do with Taako being human,” Magnus asked incredulously. He sat up straighter, “or is this another goof, because-”

“It’s not a goof,” Taako cut in, making eye contact with Lup and shrugging. “Do you really not know?”

“Maybe if you explain what true twins means,” said Lucretia, “I think there may be a… a lapse in understanding. A language barrier thing.” Taako nods.

“Yeah, whatever. Listen up, compadres, ‘cause I’m only gonna explain this shit once,” Taako began, noting that Lucretia had pulled a notebook and pen out, ready to record whatever he said. “Elves are pack animals right? Humans and dwarves and gnomes are too, but elves are like really, really into family, more so than a lot of other races. I mean, a lot of our family sucked with a capital S U C K E D, but that pretty abnormal.”

Davenport nodded. “Elves' capacity to form strong bonds was a large part of why the IPRE wanted a couple on the ship.”

“Yeah, for sure,” continued Taako, “and even more so with me and Lup. We’re true twins, right? It just means that we’re changelings. It’s not super uncommon, it’s just… it’s just a thing, y’know?”

“Changelings,” said Merle, “Like, the ol’ switcheroo? Trading babies thing?”

“Exactly,” said Lup, buttering her toast. “It’s usually discovered within a year, and it’s supposed to bring good luck to both families, bind them together to be a partnership, and the babies don’t remember it usually, so it's no big dealio.”

“So you two were switched with humans for a year when you were babies.” Davenport stated. “What does that have to do with the twin thing?”

Taako reached up to tug on his ear, humming slightly and trying to pick out the words to say next. “No.”

“No?”

“What Taako means is not exactly,” explained Lup, sipping her drink. “We’re each other’s changeling. Our mom had me, and she swapped me with Taako when we were a bit over an hour old. It was a good match because we were born so close together.”

“It just didn’t work out,” said Taako. “She didn’t look into the humans that she chose close enough. The one who gave birth to me didn’t like elves. A racist, y’know? So she decided to throw Lup into the hearth fire to try to get me back.”

“What?” Interrupted Merle.

“Chillax, I would have been fine.” Lup lit up a small ball of flame in her hand. “See?”

“Anyway, mom didn’t like that, and decided that if someone could do that to a baby, then they probably shouldn’t have one. So she kept me and made Lup and me twins. And then she died and our auntie died and we went to grandad Tostaada’s farm and ran away, blah blah blah, sad life story here, caravan there, and now we’re drinking mimosas, baby.”

“Back up,” Magnus said, “you were a human baby.”

“Yeah, for an hour.” 

“How?” asked Lucretia, quill pausing over her notebook. “You won’t just turn back into a human if the spell dies, right?”

“It’s not a spell,” responded Lup. “It’s our biology. We spent so much time together when we were first born that we just changed.” She shrugged, “I don’t really know how it works, but we just sort of mixed together. I think auntie said that it only took a couple days before Taako was my full, blood related brother. When changelings merge it’s called true twins.”

Merle nodded, “I don’t specialize in elf biology-”

“No shit,” said Taako quietly, pointing to his arm, which Merle had incorrectly healed in Cycle Three, leading to half a year of a completely useless limb.

“- I don’t specialize in Elf Biology,” Merle said louder, clearly ignoring Taako. “But I do know that you guys can be weird as shit. You have to be careful when using certain spells.”

“Thank you, Merle, for your extremely professional medical opinion.” Davenport said, “Please refrain from calling your crew members weird as shit in the future.”

“Aw, Capt'n Port, you’ll always be the weirdest to me!”

“Taako, Lup, could this be exploited in any way?” Davenport asked, his mind on the mission, “Does Taako have spells he needs to stay an elf, is he weaker than a normal elf?”

“I am a normal elf,” said Taako, crossing his arms. “Just had a bit of a weird start.”

“Yeah, he’s 100% elf,” added Lup, “You can tell by his twinky ass.”

“Hey!”

“It’s still kind of fucked up though,” mused Magnus, “Like, Taako, you were essentially kidnapped.”

“Eh, surprise adopted. It’s just a part of elf culture, and like Lup said, they usually figure it out quickly and get good luck and all that jazz.”


	2. The Starblaster Crew

Cycle Fifteen: “Did you see their ears?” Merle heard whispered as he walked past the twin’s room, carrying a pitcher of water for his plants from the kitchen to his room.

Cycle Seventeen: “Magnus’s canines are like, way sharper than they used to be, right? That’s not just me?” Taako murmured to Lup, as they walked through a crowd of robots.

Cycle Nineteen: “Fuck Taako, is it because we’re feeding them? Do you think we can reverse it before they notice?” Lup said slowly, her voice masked by the sizzle of sauteing onions.

-

Lucretia frowned. This cycle, on this empty planet and this perfect beach, was amazing. It was fun, relaxing, and most importantly, it was the first real break they’d had in a while. The light was recovered within a day, there were no civilizations to try to prepare to survive the hunger, and the sand was a pure, soft, white. But something was still wrong. 

Namely, the painting she was working on. Lucretia wasn’t a huge bragger by any means, but she was confident in her abilities and knew that she was a damn fine artist, and something about this painting was just off. The painting was of the seven of them, dressed in their red robes and grinning, and she was sure that she’d gotten all of the details correct, cross referencing pages upon pages from her sketchbook and even the descriptions she’d written in her notebook. But when looking between the drying paint and her previous drawings, something just didn’t click.

Lucretia sighed, slowing taking in the painting inch by inch, scrutinizing each brush stroke. She halted when she got to the faces, letting out a low “ah-ha!” of triumph when she figured it out. The older sketches, particularly herself, Magnus, and Barry, had more rounded ears, and in the painting, all of them (except Taako and Lup) had sharper than usual fangs peeking out from their smiles. She let out a huffing laugh, thinking that maybe in placing special attention towards getting the twin’s appearances right that she’d accidentally gained some muscle memory towards drawing their sharper features. She mixed more paint for Barry’s skin tone, prepared to correct it, and looked to where he was sitting and watching Taako surf to check for reference. 

Her paintbrush froze where it was, dripping pale peach paint onto her pallette. Barry’s ears matched the painting perfectly. They were just slightly pointed, enough to make her double take. They weren’t the full length of an elf or even a half elf, but different enough to make her pause. She leaned forwards, squinting at the other members of the crew. Magnus’ ears were harder to see, peeking out through a shaggy haircut, but they seemed to be sharper too, and although Merle’s weren’t visible through his mass of hair and beard, she could see his teeth when he threw his head back to laugh, displaying canines that were sharper than they should have been. As a gnome, Davenport’s ears were already pointed, but if she looked close enough, his canines looked sharper too. She raised a hand to her own ear, shocked to find a pointed edge than the curve she’d always known. She lowered her hand to her mouth, lightly dragging her thumb over her teeth, jumping when a sharp ridge cut into it.

Lucretia frowned, looking down at the small prick of blood welling up against her skin, wondering. After a moment she laughed, shaking her head. “Very funny!” She yelled across the beach, “Good goof!” Taako waved to her from his board, and pointed to his ear as if to say Can’t hear you!” She cupped her hands over her mouth, yelling again, but Taako just shrugged. 

“MAGNUS!” A voice said near her ear, and Lucretia yelped, flinching and quickly scrambling to cover her work with spare pieces of paper and old sketches.

“Seriously Magnus?” She said, catching her breath. “You scared the shit out of me!” Magnus laughed and sat down next to her, reaching to move the papers. She slapped his hand away.

“You’ve got to keep vigilant, Lucretia! As head of security, I’m training you. Also you should see Barry’s face when I do it, its fucking hilarious.” He tried to reach for the papers again.

“Magnus, it’s a surprise!” She said, laughing as she pulled his hand back. Across the sand, Lup got up from her towel, stretching, and then calling Taako in to help her make dinner.

“I hope they make something good.” Magnus said, “Not that it’s ever bad, but the only thing we ever have is fish.”

“We’re on a deserted island, what else could we have?” Lucretia replied, smirking up at him, “Taako and Lup are playing a goof on all of us.”

“What? Nah, I would have caught it,” Magnus said, “Trust me, I’m very vigilant right now.” 

“Look,” she said, pulling her hair back to show her ears, “see?”

“That’s just your ear.”

“No, think about it, it’s pointed, all of ours are. And our teeth!” Magnus squinted at her, reaching a hand up to touch his ear. He nodded, eyebrows raised

“Hmm, jeez guess I missed that one. How long do you think it’s been going on?” Magnus asked. Lucretia shrugged. Moments later, the aroma of whatever the twins were cooking hit them, followed shortly by Taako calling everyone over.

Halfway through the meal, Lucretia winked at Magnus, who grinned.

“We’ve figured it out,” Magnus began loudly, standing up. “You can’t fool Magnus Burnsides!”

“Magnus,” said Davenport, sighing, “Can we have one day wihtout these antics-”

“No, let him finish,” interrupted Taako, pouring more sauch on him plate. “I want to see where this is going.”

“Oh it’s going all right!” 

“What-”

“Shh, Barry”

“You two,” he said, pointing to Lup and Taako, “are messing with us!”

Taako side eye’d Lup, “Do we have anything going on right now?”

Lup shrugged, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “I’ve lost track.”

Magnus pushed his unruly hair behind his ear. “You’re making us look like you guys! But Lucretia and I figured it out.”

“Your transmutation is really improving Taako, I couldn’t even begin to get it off…” Lucretia added, trailing off when she saw the twins freeze, faces going white. “Taako, Lup, are you alright?”

A moment passed in silence before Lup nodded, nudging Taako. “Oh, you figured it out!” She said, pasting a smile on her face, but her voice was strained and both her and Taako looked stressed. Davenport frowned, looking at the two elves and then at the others, eyes widening as he really saw the changes for the first time. 

“Aha, yes, just another fun prank from you’re favorite elf-chef-flip-wizards!” Taako mumbled weakly. The crew glanced around at each other, uneasy at the twins unual demeanor. 

“What’s going on,” Davenport said seriously.

“Nothing,” Lup snapped, and then cringed,“sorry Capt'n Port, just a prank.

“Do I need Merle to cast Zone of Truth?” The captain said.

“Jeeze, c’mon, it’s Capt'n Port, not Dad’n port.”

“Taako.” Davenport said. “I am your captain, and I’m ordering you to tell me what's going on.”

“Nothing-” Lup said.

“We didn’t do it on purpose!” Taako said at the same time. Lup punched him in the arm. “Hey!” He looked up at the crew, who were all staring at him in shock. Davenport motioned for him to continue. “It’s some elf stuff. Changeling shit, alright?”

“I thought that changeling thing was with babies, like what happened to you two?” Barry asked, lightly tracing the pointed edge of his own ear as he spoke. Taako fidgeted awkwardly in his seat.

“That’s one type. The most common type.” Taako said slowly, struggling to figure out what to say. “It’s just an elf thing. It’s been going on for a few cycles now, really gradulally, but, well- It’s hard to explain.” 

Lup took over. “Basically, sometimes, not all the time, it’s really circumstantial. But if elves form a group,” she turned red and crossed her arms, “a family, with non-elves, and some other conditions are met, sometimes changelings happen.”

“What are the other conditions?” Lucretia asked, fingers itching for a quill to record what she was learning. Lup hesitated for a minute, and then spoke.

“Typically it’s when we don’t have a lot of connections to other elves- and you know, fucking check mark right there. And since Taako and I’ve already done one form of changeling-ing, we’re a lot more susceptible to doing it again.” She paused, nervously running a hand through her hair and mulling over her next words.

Taako took over before she could continue, speaking quickly, “and we’ve been feeding you! You ever heard the old wives tales about eating elf food and how it enslaves you or whatever? It’s bullshit, but Lup and I have been talking and we think that the way that we’ve all bonded and how we sort of provide for you has made our magic decide that we all need to be one big, happy, elf-y, family.” He crossed his arms, refusing to make eye contact with anyone. “We didn’t do it on purpose.

“So what I’m hearing is-” Davenport tried to say.

“What I’m hearing is that you consider us family!” Merle proclaimed before he could finish, getting up to hug the twins. “Awww.”

“Uh, gross” Lup said as Merle hugged her. “You smell like seaweed.”

“So what, we’re all going to turn into elves?” Magnus asked. “Not saying that I’m not down, but I’d prefer a bit of warning.”

“More like half-elves,” Taako said, his unease melting away when he saw that noone was truely angry. He waved a hand in the air dismissivly, “you’re all too old to fully change.” 

“Can we pick what kind of elf we become, because I think being a wood elf would be really helpful.” Merle said, waggling his eyebrows.

“One that’s not how it works, and two- gross, you old man,” Taako said, wrinkling his nose.

“So you’re not mad?” Lup asked cautiously, leaning back against her seat, her eyes flicking over Barry. He shook his head and gave her a small smile, and Lup smiled back, blushing.

Davenport sighed and raised a hand to massage his temple, “I wish we could have had a bit more notice, but I’m not mad.”

“Good,” Taako said, all of the tension leaking out of his body. “Now let’s finish this bomb clam bake.

“Well,” Merle, returning to his seat and pulling a small bag out of his pocket. “I was really waiting for the right time to do this, and now seems as good as ever.” He paused, shaking a handful of beads out of the bag. “I made these- carved them, you know? They’re for braids, which as I’m sure you can tell,” he motioned towards his beard, “are a large part of dwarf culture. They’ve got a lot of different meanings.”

He held a bead up, displaying the way that the black painted turned into an iridescent shine when it caught the light, and how runes engraved in silver glinted. “Now, I just chose the color based on what I like, but the shape is an icosahedron, a 20 sided prism. That’s what my clan would typically use to designate family. And, after these twenty- one cycles, I really consider us a family, so I’d be honored if you’d all wear these.”

“Merle…” Lucretia said, her eyes watering slightly, “That’s beautiful.” Around the table, there was a chorus of agreement.

Merle smiled wide, “Well, if you’ve got hair long enough, I’ll braid them in for you. Davenport, Barry, and Magnus, I made you these.” He pulled out three ropes made of braided seaweed. “You can just wear it on there.”


	3. Angus McDonald

Lucretia sat in one of the empty beds in the medbay of the Starblaster, across from the unconscious bodies of her family. Most of her family, she reminded herself. Lup was still missing and Taako had just knocked Barry off the ship, and The Hunger was still coming. But this plane, this planet, is where she’d decided to make her last stand.

It physically pained her, dumping her journals into the baby voidfish’s tank, wiping the last century away in seconds. Putting a Glamour over Magnus and Merle’s ears and teeth so that they could pass as just human and dwarf, trying to find places where they could live on their own and be safe. Seperated, but safe.

She unbraided their kinship braid from Merle’s beard, taking the bead. He’d wouldn’t remember exactly what it stood for, but he’d know what it meant, and she couldn’t risk him trying to piece it together. She’d left everyone else theirs, hoping that they’d just write it off as a trinket they’d picked up somewhere. She’d cut her own hair close to the skull, carefully clipping off her own braid. She hesitated a moment, and strung Merle’s bead on the lock of hair, tying the lock of hair around her wrist as a bracelet. It served as a reminder of what she was doing this for. A cruel reminder, but a reminder nonetheless.

-

_Julia catches Magnus sitting in the dark one night, meditatively carving a scrap hunk of pine into a duck. He’s confused when she asks if he needs a candle or a lamp. Julia and her father are both tieflings, so she knows that she can’t fully understand the world the exact same way that a human like Magnus does, but she knows enough about humans to know that they don’t have darksight. She catches him swearing in elvish, singing in what sounds like dwarvish, and using a gnomish rogue technique to open their door when they lose the key. Whenever she mentions it, he just says that he traveled around a lot before coming to Ravens Roost, and must have picked something up somewhere._

_-_

_Taako shines on the stage during Sizzle it Up, confident and sure of himself. But when they’re not performing, Sazed noticies the little discrepancies in how he acts. He sings while he cooks, leaving gaps in the songs, as if waiting for someone to chime in with nonexistent duets and group numbers. He ducks imaginary chefs, asks people who aren't there to pass things. Sazed’s caught him whispering in his sleep, words in different languages and references to things Sazed has never heard of. When Sazed brings it up, Taako acts confused, and says that he doesn’t understand what Sazed means._

_-_

_Merle fits himself into the Highchurch clan well enough. They don’t recognize his father’s name, but he has their kinship bead strung into his beard, and he knows how to braid their ancestral patterns, so they figure that he must be the son of a bastard long forgotten. There are little discrepancies- family recipes that he makes just slightly different, Pan hymns that he insists he is singing right when his lyrics are wrong, but it’s just written off as the result of being raised outside of the community._

_-_

_Barry finds it harder each time he is slammed back into his lich form and overwhelmed by memories. Longing for a family who he feels the bonds to, but who don’t remember him. He doesn’t understand why Lucretia did what she did, figures that it must have been desperation. He sees Merle, Magnus, and Taako together, sees them work with her, sees Lup’s umbrella. They don’t see him._

_-_

_Some nights Davenport wakes up in a state of perfect clarity, longing for understanding, going to Lucretia and begging for answers. It fades in a few minutes, but Lucretia will sit with him until the morning, brewing them tea and watching the stars from the moonbase as he mumbles his name over and over again._

_-_

_Lucretia works and plans and works. When the boys, her boys, come, she lets them join despite the sensible part of her mind weighing the risks and telling her that its a mistake._

_-_

_Lup watches and waits. She screams but no one hears. So she waits._

_-_

Angus McDonald would very much like to know what is going on. And since he’s the world’s greatest detective, he’s damn well going to find out. He loves “tres horny boys,” as they’ve taken to calling themselves, and he loves the bureau, and he loves the director, but at his core he can tell something is wrong.

Madame Director sometimes stares at the three reclaimers with such a look of longing that Angus is blown back, and sometimes she watches Davenport with an air of pure melancholy. Angus is dying to know why. So Angus does what he knows best, and he looks for clues.

Clue One: Magnus, Merle, and Taako make references to things and people that nobody else ever recognizes. He’s asked Killian before in case they were just older celebrities that he doesn’t know, but she hasn’t heard of them either. If the Director’s around, she understands them, and sometimes responds with a laugh and a mystery reference of her own.

Clue Two: The Director is constantly touching her wrist, running her hands over a bracelet that's usually hidden beneath a sleeve. The one time that Angus can see it he commits it to memory. A thick, braided, white cord, strung with two many-edged black beads.

Clue Three: Davenport has a necklace with one of the same beads. It’s strung on a necklace and usually tucked inside his shirt, but occasionally it’s in the open.

Clue Four: There’s a matching bead hanging amongst the decorations and baubles of Taako’s huge wizard hat.

Clue Five: Magnus has another one of the many-sided black beads tied to the pommel of his grandfather’s knife.

Clue Six: Merle doesn’t have a bead, but sometimes he looks at the others, eyes squinting as if trying to decipher its meaning.

Clue Seven: When Angus saw the Red Robe down in Neverwinter, there was a bead hanging from a chain on its neck.

It’s not a lot to go off of, but Angus does some digging and research and comes to the realization that beads were a huge part of dwarf culture. He writes to one of his contacts who knows more, and she tells him that they sound like kinship beads, but she’s never heard of any clans that use ones like he’s described, all the other dwarves she’s met use octahedrons, not what he’s estimated to be around twenty sides (she also tells him that her dad gave her and Mookie new kinship beads for Candlenights, and that they were icosahedrons, but they're the only ones like that that she’s ever seen). Mavis’ insight lets Angus draw another connection between the beads and Merle.

And then then the reclaimers are back from Wonderland, and Angus is so, so relieved to them alive. But they brought the Red Robe, and all Angus wants to do is trust them, but he’s only ten years old and his entire world is falling apart around him and _he’s so scared_ , and so he raises his wand at them: “Start talking. I need to know what you know.”

-

It’s six months after The Day of The Story and The Song, as everyone’s been calling it. Six months after everyone remembered, six months after everything changed. Angus McDonald has solved a lot of mysteries in his young life, he’s pieced together a lot of puzzles and usually came out on top. But this house- he doesn’t know much about this house.

It started in the days following the defeat of The Hunger, somehow word got out that Angus didn’t actually have parents that approved his stay on the moonbase, and that he didn’t actually have parents at all. His grandpa had been his last living relative, and he died.

“Hey little dude,” Taako said, as they walked to his and the other’s dorm. It was being packed up, everything shoved in boxes and crates. “I don’t want you to feel like I’m abandoning you, just ‘cause we’re leaving the moonbase, okay? I’ve been through that shit, and I promise I’m not leaving you in the dust. I just can’t be around Lucr- her, or anything that she’s made right now.”

“I understand sir,” Angus replied. And really, he was trying to. The Director had ripped apart her family, had separated Taako from his sister and everyone else that he cared about, and Taako wasn’t ready to forgive her. “I can visit you though, right?” He asked, cringing when he hears how whiny and childish it sounds, and he cleared his throat and tried again “or- or at least write?” Despite trying to sound more adult, Angus couldn't hide how his throat cracked and his voice got thick and Taako froze

“Ango, you don’t understand,” he said, getting on one knee so that he could be on Angus’ level, putting his hand on his shoulders. “Angus, I want you to come with me- No, you’re coming with us. I’ve made the decision.”

“What?” Angus asked, reaching up to wipe at the stinging tears gathering in his eyes, “Taako, what?”

“I’m a selfish elf,” Taako said, flicking his braid over his shoulder and trying to play it cool, “I can’t leave my magic boy behind after I’ve invested so much time teaching him. ‘Sides, we already picked out a house with too many bedrooms, so we need you.”

So for the last six months, Angus had been living with varying amounts of “birds”- a nickname that Magnus insisted on, based on a prophecy that worked as shorthand for the crew. First it was Taako, Magnus, Merle, Lup and Barry. After a month Taako gave in, craving having his full family around him, and Lucretia came back, accompanied by Davenport who’d stayed on the moonbase to keep her company. Then Kravitz “officially” moved in, even though he’d already been eating dinner there almost every night for weeks. At the fourth month mark, Davenport, Lucretia, and Merle left to go on a cross-world boat trip, but they were expected back before the end of the year. The house was packed, and loud, and messy, and Angus couldn’t picture anything better.

He learned a lot too, about how each member became a half-elf and how that bonded them together, about how Taako started as a human, about the many planar systems that they’d crossed and saved, about wood carving, about cooking. Kravitz had drawn a line a necromancy, saying that if the Raven Queen had been generous enough to allow Lup and Barry into her ranks, then they could at least honor her most basic commandment, but Barry had slipped a book under Angus pillow anyway, “It’s not a crime to just learn about it!” scribbled on the inside cover.

But with everything that he learned, there was still one pounding question playing on repeat in his head. How long? He was sure that they’d get tired of him eventually, even if Taako still called him “Bubbeleh” and “Kemosabe” and “Pumpkin” more than he called him his own name. And Angus McDonald was nothing if not careful. He did the chores that they’d loosely assigned to him dutifully, and doing extra cleaning work whenever he could. In his free time, he picked up cases from the Neverwinter militia, and squirreled away the money that he’d earned in a knapsack under his bed that was also stuffed with a few changes of clothes, spare rations, and a couple copies of his favorite books.

It’s a week after the sixth month mark when Angus actually has to use it. He was scoping out a few missing persons cases that all seemed to be connected, and had somehow fallen into a trap.

Angus was tied up, laying in the center of an altar, surrounded by a necromantic cult. His stone of farspeech and wand lay shattered on the floor several feet away. Angus was terrified, his heart pounding in his chest, and his breath coming in at a quick, ragged pace. He squirmed, trying to loosen his bindings as he eyed the sharp looking knives that all of the dark robed members held. When he was younger, some distant relative had told him to not associate with people who worship pagan gods, but now he was cycling through the prayers of all those he could remember- Pan, Istus, the Raven Queen.

The leader of the cult heard his whispers and slapped him harshly across the face, “Shut up! We’ll make it quick if you behave.”

“I won’t,” a new voice said, cutting through the rhythmic chanting of the cult.

Across the room, a tear seemed to appear in the air, and three figures stepped out, one clothed in black and two in red, all carrying scythes. The two in red slashed at the necromancers, ripping their souls out of their forms and sending them to the Eternal Stockade. The one in black went to untie Angus.

“Are you okay?” Kravitz asked, eyes searching Angus’ face as he tried to untie the knots, giving up after a moment and slicing through them.

“I’m fine, sir,” Angus said, “Thank you.” He stepped off the pentagram, “I just need to get a bit more evidence and I should be good.” He took a step forward, only to be stopped by Kravitz clutching his arm.

“Angus, you were almost sacrificed, we’re going home.” He said, slicing another rift in the air, creating a portal back to the house, “Angus, let’s go.”

“It’ll only take a few minutes-” Angus tried to argue, but was cut off by Kravitz grabbing him and forcing him through, closing the rift behind them. Almost immediately after getting through he was grabbed by Taako in a tight hug.

Taako was whispering something in elvish, but it was too quick for Angus to keep up, so he just caught his breath and tried to get his heart to settle, hugging back. After a few moments, Taako pulled away, looking him over to check for injury.

“I’m fine, sir,” Angus said, echoing his statement from earlier, immediately being pulled into a hug by Magnus.

“Fine enough that he wanted to stay and collect evidence.” Kravitz added. “I left Lup and Barry to deal with the cult so that I could get him through the rift. Speaking of, I need to get back, they’re still on probation.” He stepped back through the rift and it disappeared behind him.

Magnus stood up, sighing. “Angus,” he said, and Angus felt his stomach drop- he was so used to hearing some form of nickname, people only used his only used his full name when they were being serious, “Angus, you have to tell us when you go on dangerous missions.”

Taako started to talk, cutting Magnus off.“We only found out where you were because the captain of the militia came around to tell us you hadn’t checked in! And then, to my surprises, he reveals that you’ve been covering murders and cults practically weekly for months! You told us that you were focusing on heists-”

“I mean, technically murder is just a heist where you steal someone’s life.” Angus tried.

“No. Not funny.” Magnus said, “We’re being serious right now.”

“You could have died- thank gods Kravitz had already been tracking that cult and that the Raven Queen actually heard your prayer,” Taako said, voice getting louder, “you lied to us, Angus, and lied yourself into a situation where a normal person would have died!”

“I’m a detective Taako, it’s what I do-”

“You’re a kid!” Taako yelled. Angus had never heard him yell before, and he felt something in him turn to stone. This was it, he thought, he crossed the line and they didn’t want him to live with them anymore. “You’re a kid and it’s my job to keep you safe, and I can’t do that if you lie to me!”

“I-”

“Go to your room!” Taako yelled, dropping onto the couch and putting his head in his hands, “just go.” Angus fled the room, racing up the stairs and closing his door. He could hear the two men talking downstairs but he tried to tune them out. He wiped the tears off of his face, pulling his pack out from under his bed. He grabbed a heavy, waterproof coat and dug his back-up wand out from his desk, casting featherfall on himself. He was pushing the window open and stepping onto the roof when Taako walked in.

“Angus, honey, I…” Taako trailed off when he saw him. “Ango, what are you doing?” He said in the softest voice that Angus had ever heard. Angus wiped at fresh tears trailing down his cheeks, biting his lip and glancing between the drop off of the roof and Taako.

“It’s- It’s okay,” the words robotic. “You didn’t ask for a kid, it’s unfair for me to stay and be a burden on you and your family.” Taako looked heartbroken.

“Angus, you’re my family.” He said, reaching to grab one of Angus’ hands. “Please come back inside.” Angus choked back a sob.

“You don’t want me to go?” He said, voice wobbling, “I thought..”

“No,” said Taako, voice gaining an equally shakey quality. “No, Angus, I don’t want you to go. Ever. I was stressed and scared, I shouldn’t have yelled. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too,” Angus said, slowly moving off on the window sill to stand back on the floor of his bedroom. Taako sighed.

“Okay, we’re both sorry, and now we’re just standing here like a couple of assholes,” Taako said, breaking the tension. “Let’s go make hot chocolate before everyone gets back, okay?” Angus nodded, and they walked downstair, Taako refusing to let go of his hand.

Magnus was already in the kitchen, setting a pot on the stove and pouring in milk. He smiled when he saw them come in, but it didn’t reach his eyes, still stressed from the events of the evening. Angus glanced at the clock, and his eyes widened. He was gone for ten hours, no wonder they were worried. He distracted himself from his guilt by watching Taako pull out the ingredients.

“I’m going to go wait out there,” Magnus said, “I’m bad luck in the kitchen.”

“Good,” said Taako playfully, “you’ve probably already messed it up beyond repair anyways.”

“All I did was pour milk!” Magnus laughed.

“At the wrong angle,” joked Taako, “out! Here,” He said handing Angus a whisk and a bowl. “Stir the dry ingredients together as I pour them in.” They made the drink in near silence, only speaking when Taako had another direction or Angus had a question, but it was a soft, companionable silence, one that let the tension melt away.

The reaper’s returned just as they finished, the three of them and Magnus piling into the kitchen just as Taako was pouring the drink into the mugs. They drank them at the counter, laughing slightly as Lup and Barry told about their first solo mission, although Kravitz was insisting they don’t call it that, since he wasn’t supposed to leave him alone for another year.

Barry paused when sipping his drink, squinting at Angus for a second. “Hey,” he said, “Do Angus’ ears look pointier than usual?” Taako stared at him for a second and gasped.

“Angus, shit, it might be early enough to reverse it-” Taako said, nervously.

“No, I want to keep it.” Angus said, shaking his head, reaching up a hand to feel the pointed edge of his ear in surprise. “It’s the changeling thing you mentioned, right? That happened to all of you? I want to keep it. It means that I’m really a part of your family,” he bit his lip hesitating for a second. “Right?”

“Ango,” Magnus said, “you’d be a part of this family even if you were a worm. You don’t need to go through the whole elf-y thing if you don’t want to.”

Angus nodded. “I want to though,” he said. “If, if that’s okay?”

“Of course it's okay!” Taako said, his nervousness melting away as he dragged Angus into another hug. “It’s more than okay, it’s perfect!”

Angus took a moment to just exist in the embrace, breathing deeply.

“You’re going to have to change your last name to Taaco, though,” Lup said, breaking the serenity of the moment.

  
“Uh..”

“She’s joking, Ango. You’re going to be a Burnsides!”

“Well...”

“I think that Angus Bluejeans is a perfectly respectable name.”

“Guys-”

“Who’s going to tell Merle that he has to carve another bead?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End. Boom. Plz excuse any grammer issues I wrote this to procrastinate on finals lol.


End file.
